The antique in Early Renaissance Art

"En este artículo se ofrece una apretada visión de síntesis sobre la arquitectura desarrollada en tierras aragonesas entre la primera mitad del siglo XV y los primeros compases del XVII desde el reconocimiento de la coexistencia de dos tradiciones constructivas diferentes –la arquitectura levantada con ladrillo y con yeso, y la realizada en piedra– que, partiendo de lenguajes artísticos de raíz medieval, experimentaron dos fenómenos artísticos distintos a lo largo de todo este tiempo ya que, por un lado, conocieron una evolución que podría entenderse como propia y, por otro, sirvieron de cauce de expresión a quienes trataron de aplicar el nuevo sistema artístico renacentista que se estaba articulando en la Península Itálica, ofreciendo formas –y respondiendo a estilos– que irían desde el gótico hasta el clasicismo pleno.

In this article we offer a very close synthesis vision of the architecture developed on Aragonese land between the first half of the 15th century and the early 17th, starting from the acknowledgement of the coexistence of two different construction traditions : the architecture built with brick and plaster, and the one executed with stone that, starting from artistic languages of medieval origin, experienced two distinct artistic phenomena in that period since, on one side, they knew an evolution that could be understood as its own, and, on the other, they served as base of expression for those who tried to apply the new artistic Renaissance system that was being developed in the Italic Peninsula, offering forms and responding to styles that would stretch from the Gothic to Classicism.
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This book offers a dynamic interpretation of the early modern market for antiquities. It reconstructs the journey that ancient objects undertook from digging sites to Roman marketplaces, second-hand dealers’ shops, and antiquarians’ storage spaces, where they were put on sale; to sculptors’ workshops, where they were restored; and to Italian and European collections, where they arrived after complex and expensive travel over land or sea. While reconstructing the various stages of this migration, the book focuses on the shifts in economic value, meaning, and appearance that antiquities underwent in relation to the people who handled them during their journey and to the physical and symbolic settings in which they were displayed. Based on a vast amount of unpublished archival material, this work results from several years of research supported by the European Research Council and the Gerda Henkel Stiftung.
The book has been included among the books of the year 2019 by the Times Literary Supplement.

It was the publisher's choice not to include the final bibliography at the end of this volume. As I think this is an essential part of any scholarly publication, I attach the final bibliography here as a separate file.

"La escultura decorativa de aplicación arquitectónica en yeso constituye una de las manifestaciones artísticas más interesantes del Renacimiento aragonés. En este artículo pretendemos analizar tanto el marco laboral en el que se desenvolvían los profesionales que la ejecutaban como el perfil de Francisco de Santa Cruz, perfecto exponente del mazonero de aljez que desarrolla su actividad en el contexto artístico de la Zaragoza del Quinientos, de cuyos trabajos más sobresalientes también se realiza una revisión cronológica y crítica.

The ornamental sculpture of architectural application in plaster constitutes one of the most interesting artistic manifestations of the Aragonese Renaissance. In this article, we try to analyse both the labour setting where the professionals who carried it out moved, and the feature on Francisco de Santa Cruz, perfect representative of the mazonero de aljez , who developes his activity in the artistic context of Zaragoza in the sixteenth century and whose more representative work are also chronologically and critically reviewed."

"La adopción de un nuevo repertorio decorativo de inspiración clásica a partir de la década de 1490 constituye el primer paso en el proceso de asimilación del lenguaje renacentista en el arte aragonés. Este cambio afectó en primer lugar a la pintura ornamental, un género del que nos han llegado ejemplares de gran interés fechados entre 1494-1495 y 1522 que evidencian diversos niveles de asimilación de los principios del nuevo estilo. La mayoría se caracteriza por la supervivencia de los esquemas góticos y por la convivencia de motivos propios de los repertorios góticos, mudéjar y renaciente, pero también existen ejemplos que testimonian una asimilación más consciente del nuevo lenguaje anticuario de los grutescos. Estos últimos deben entenderse como una primera aproximación, siquiera conceptual, a la arquitectura al romano, reemplazada a partir de 1515 por el empedrado, una fórmula más sobria que acabaría prevaleciendo con la que se pretendía imitar los interiores de cantería, asociada a la aplicación del repertorio clásico en los elementos de yeso de las bóvedas, los vanos y las molduras desplegadas en la línea de impostas.

The adoption of a new ornamental repertory of classical inspiration starting on the decade of 1490 constitutes the first step in the process of an assimilation of the Renaissance language in the Aragonese art. This change had firstly an effect on the ornamental painting, a genre from which we have received some examples of great interested dated from 1494-1495 to 1522, which give clear proof of the diverse levels of assimilation of the principles of the new style. Most of them being characterized by the survival of the Gothic schemes and by the coexistence of different motives peculiar to Gothic, Mudejar and Renaissance repertories, although there are also examples which demonstrate a more conscious assimilation of the new antiquariam language of the grotesques. The latter must be understood as a first approximation, conceptually at least, to the arquitectura al romano, replaced from 1515 by the empedrado, a more sober formula which finally prevailed and with which it was intented to imitate the inner parts of stonework, associated with the application on the classical repertory in the plaster cast elements in the vaults, gaps and mouldings opened out in the line of imposts."

As Italy’s artistic heritage, both antiquities and fine art, has been hardest hit by the illicit art trade, these papers will focus on the country’s historic spoliation during the Renaissance, Napoleonic and Grand Tour periods, through the 20th to 21st centuries. The talks will present the history of how Italian artistic patrimony made its way into European and American private and public collections. Italy and receiving countries have sharpened their laws and policing so that recoveries and prosecutions towards restitution are on the rise.
Organised by Dr. Eleni Vassilika, this conference is aimed not only at students but also art world and museum professionals, indeed anyone interested to hear the latest information, much of which is unpublished, and to learn more about the surprising realities.

This lecture looked at the Renaissance response to Roman antiquities, particularly in the city of Rome.  Examinations ranged from the interest in engravings of ancient buildings in Rome, Botticelli's Birth of Venus vs. Aphrodite of Menophantos, the discovery of the Domus Aurea in conjunction with Raphael and the invention of the grotesque, private Renaissance collections of antiquities, the discovery of the Laocoon, Michelangelo's David, and more.
Guest Lecturer, 10/11/2021, for Professor Sarah Blake McHam's Renaissance Art class, Rutgers University

Il lavoro si concentra sulla presenza di iscrizioni e riferimenti al mondo antico nell'opera di Giovanni Bellini, in particolare attraverso la rianalisi di un disegno custodito oggi al Louvre (inv. RF 524) solitamente attribuito alla mano di Jacopo Bellini.

Project of Accademia Filarmonica di Verona, Conservatorio Statale di Musica di Verona and Fondazione Cariverona. The project aims to study and publish in a diplomatic edition (with summaries, essays and chronology) the documents produced by the Accademia Filarmonica di Verona from its foundation (1543) to the begining of the twentieth century. The first three volumes of the project (1543-1605, 1605-1634, 1637-1733) were published in 2015.
The project was funded from 2004 to 2006 by Fondazione Cariverona; since 2007 it has been funded by the Accademia Filarmonica di Verona.